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All good Steve Reich works come to those who wait. And in 2023 my ensemble finally cut its teeth on one of Steve’s finest and most pivotal works, as it is rightly held to be - ‘Double Sextet’ (2007). The occasion was a return to our regular home in Tokyo of their Opera City where three sold-out crowds awaited our Reich portrait with their usual unbridled rapture and vivid enthusiasm. ‘Double Sextet’, still seldom performed in relative terms, proved a wild hit for them and us, and we were able to send some rehearsal snippets to dear Steve along the way.
An email to me by return was ebullient, and began with the words ‘If you ever get the chance to record…’ and my goodness did that ever get me thinking.
If you were to play a Steve Reich numbers game, 6 would be the digit to which you would keep returning. Such tantalising denominators. So eminently divisible, lavishly so for a number so lowly - and utterly rife in his music. Take the main pattern of ‘Drumming’ for example, which is ‘officially’ spread over six beats. Does one always hear it that way? Sometimes it will sound more like three in the bar, or two, or even one. That magic number glints its eye, but as always, there is no right or wrong way to hear or feel this music.
Furthermore, what if the ensembles duly created to carry these numerical codes also represented, keenly, this Platonic Form of that very ‘six-ness’? There’s certainly plenty visibility across Reich’s output to suggest this, and so an album of ‘The Sextets’ more or less fell into our laps and onto our abacus.
It is my desire to celebrate these works specifically as a cohesive unit. And as you might expect, with my favourite composer of all time, six of anything is good, but these works truly do stand alone.
‘Sextet’ is a candidate for his most iconic work, and its opening sequence strikes a heart-stopping chord or two (or six). It always immediately transports me to a vibrant metropolitan boulevard in my imagination, grand pianos in high gear, and we have been lucky enough to work closely with Steve on this genuine piece of chamber music in London, Prague, and Helsinki amongst other countless concerts.
‘Six Marimbas’ is almost scandalously fabulous in its multiple marimba portrayal, and although ‘just six’ marimbas, it can sometimes sound like many more.
‘Dance Patterns’ is new to us and significantly under-represented on disc, and so we wanted to secure our own CCG version of this delightful and catchy rarity, and to introduce it to a wider audience who may well not be familiar with it.
‘Double Sextet’ with its grinding rhythmic drive and tight ensemble swagger is ideally suited to the brazenly virtuosic musicians in my group, and our version gives out vast emotion, joy and gravity at both ends of the dynamic spectrum. This work shocks and caresses you, and it never ever fails to take my breath away.
Recording Steve’s music is an odyssey for me and with three albums already made, fast becoming a major part of his legacy. Please consider personally joining this powerful piece of posterity, by making a donation and securing ‘The Sextets’.
